As college students, most of us belong
to the breed who have least clarity about their future goals / ambitions, and
tend to take a lot of things for granted. I can relate to this fact as even
though it has been more than a decade since I graduated, I still remember how I
knew nothing about what my professional life is going to be like. The same
holds true for another gentleman, a proud entrepreneur by the name Simarpreet ,
who belongs to the family managed business of HARTEK group. He has enjoyed good
success over the years and is highly driven by his passion to make a difference
to the society we live in.
However, Simarpreet is the first person
to admit he was not always like that. Till the last year of his engineering, he
was not sure about his future goals. And his parents didn’t discuss about his
career, as they wanted to give him the freedom of choice.
Wake
Up Call
He didn’t have much idea about the kind
of activities that his father was involved with at Amtek (which later on became
Hartek). Still, being a family business, he assumed that he would straight-away
walk into his father’s business one fine day. However, Simarpreet soon realized
that he was day-dreaming when his father placed three stiff challenges in front
of him if he intended to join him at Amtek. These were:
-To get a job offer through campus placement
-To undergo training at a company and
place, as per his father’s choosing.
-To work in his father’s company at the
ground level without expecting any special privilege
It was probably these challenges that
woke up the ‘entrepreneur’ in Simarpreet and he decided to take them head on.
He soon realized that the road ahead was going to be a tough one when he faced
back to back rejections from no less than four companies. Finally, Simarpreet
made the cut with a job offer from I Gate Patni Computers and he was a relieved
man. At the back of his mind, he knew that the first challenge was just a
trailer of hardships that lay ahead of him.
Turning
Point
He set out to complete the second
challenge put forward by his father which was to undergo training for 8 months
for Schneider Electric at Vadodara, Gujarat, with just a couple of thousand
rupees and an ATM card with an unknown pin.
Upon arrival in Vadodara, he got a shocker – there was no stay arrangement
done for him. The training was going to start after four days and he had to
manage his stay from the limited money he had in his pockets.
That was when he learnt the first
entrepreneurial lesson – getting work done at the lowest possible budget. He
stayed at the railway station for a night, and then, got hold of a cheap room
to suit his budget, with the help of locals.
As per Simarpreet, he was ready for the
surprise challenges being thrown at him one after the other. However, his
determination got a major boost when he had a talk to his father over phone. His
father spoke about ‘lack of electricity’ being the major problem plaguing
Indians and wanted to focus on ‘why’ to get relevant answers. He advised
Simarpreet to never look back and shared his vision of seeing a developed and
sustainable India. The manner in which his father spoke and conveyed the
message, Simarpreet was totally convinced that his father’s purpose is now
going to be the purpose of his life – such was the impact!
He
learnt the value of money and facing hardships in life while undergoing the
gruelling training at Schneider Electric, where he was inducted as a shop-floor
engineer, working almost 13 hours every day. Thus, Simarpreet managed to
complete the major challenges in front of him and got selected as an engineer for
the BD (Business Development) team at his father’s firm, Amtek. This learning
experience made him quite stronger and ready to face the world. Simarpreet felt
a great sense of achievement as he had proved himself worthy of inheriting his
father’s legacy and carrying it forward.
And he was thankful to his father for
throwing those challenges, especially the training one, along with the
inspiring talk over phone from Vadodara. As per Simarpreet, this period was the
major turning point of his life, and he was well prepared to achieve bigger
things for his family business.
The
Hard Yards and Bold Decisions
Under his father’s guidance, Simarpreet
was exposed to a variety of sites and was made to interact with a lot of
customers. He continued to work hard and take as much learnings as possible
from his father, who was a real taskmaster (as per Simarpreet). After joining
Amtek, Simarpreet made his first major strategic contribution by convincing his
father to change the name from Amtek to Hartek (his father’s name). The reason
being there was already a company with the name Amtek, and that made Simarpreet
feel uncomfortable.
And Simparpreet managed to get the brand
name change from ‘Amtek’ to ‘Hartek’ even though his father was sceptical about
such a big change for a company that had done business under the name ‘Amtek’
for more than two decades. He managed to do so by convincing his father that
the North Indian public relate more to the entrepreneur than the company. And
even several big companies like Tata, Dell, HP, Schneider, etc. have been named
after their founders. Thus, Simarpreet managed to get the first decisive move
towards formation of Hartek India Pvt. Ltd, under the Hartek group. And this
lead to the flagship company of the group changing its name from Amtek Energy
& Power Pvt. Ltd. to Hartek Power Pvt. Ltd.
Major
Accomplishments
To achieve his father’s dream of a
sustainable India, Simarpreet focused on sustainable energy sources and
strongly believes that they are the future. In 2014, his business came up with
the rooftop solar division of Hartek Group, and later founded Hartek Solar Pvt.
Ltd. in 2015. Natural energy sources like solar, especially rooftop solar
panels were the stuff with which Simarpreet and his team started getting
involved in (for residential space).
As part of Hartek Solar, he travelled to
more than 11 states in around 18 months for the purpose of solar panel
installation. And all of this realizing that it is completely futuristic work.
He tasted success with his first commercial project for Hartek in the city of
Chandigarh.
That’s when his resolve and
determination received a major boost. Thanks to the preachings of his father,
Simarpreet has always been focused on nation building. Everything that he and
Hartek does is from the point of view of growth – rising from the belief that
when the nation grows, you grow and so does your business!
Incidents
that have Contributed to His Entrepreneurial Growth
Simarpreet believes that every
experience in life teaches you something invaluable and there have been many
such experiences in his life that have helped him grow as an entrepreneur. He
had never seen any employee of Hartek India ever leaving the company.
So, when one such employee came to him
and cried, he was taken aback. He dug deep to realize that the reason was an
injury to his mother and lack of money for her treatment. This was when he
pitched in, on behalf of the business feeling a sense of being a social entrepreneur.
The employee started working with double
enthusiasm and Simarpreet could feel the difference his help had created during
trying circumstances for him. It was the first time it struck him that Hartek
was not just his own family business, but, was in turn taking care of a large
number of families and their livelihood.
Role
of Family Managed Business Course
One of the most important experiences
for Simarpreet has been his tenure at SP Jain for the Family Managed Business
program. As per him, the biggest
takeaway from this rendezvous was the mentoring he got.
Their ‘Guru-Shishya’ model has nurtured
thousands of entrepreneurs by helping them to not only to become better
businessmen, but, also better human beings. He is still grateful to the program
for giving him mentors with whom he is still in touch and seeks valuable advice
from time to time.
He realized that to become a great
leader, you have to be a great follower. And SP Jain imbibed good reading
habits in him. In fact, Simarpreet claims that he has become a voracious reader
only because of his student experience..
One of the key learnings from SP Jain was the difference between ‘blood equity’ and ‘sweat equity’ – to
earn your rights through the hard grind and sweat, rather than just being lucky
to get them.
The story of Simarpreet is quite
inspiring as he has matured quickly to become a responsible entrepreneur who is
driven by his larger than life ‘purpose’ which is to clean and build a
sustainable India. He has stayed grounded and is a live example of the phrase
“Stay Humble, Hustle Hard!” He has never shied away from challenges thrown by
life or his father, enjoyed the learning experience on the job as well as at college,
and feels responsible towards the needs of his employees.
Clearly, he has all the makings of a
successful entrepreneur and Hartek group is definitely in safe hands!
Written by Mr Tejas Savla
